Today’s post begins Day Two. As you can see, I’m at the bus stop to catch the 163 into New York City. Once the bus arrives, it takes about fifty minutes to get to the city.

This bus stop sign just let’s me know that I’m not being nearly flamboyant enough when boarding a bus. I guess I’ll just have to work on that, huh?

Last night, this is where the bus dropped me off. I timed it perfectly with luck and caught the hotel shuttle loading a bunch of people who had also just arrived from NYC.

It was really chilly at night, so I was glad for the short wait to get back to my warm hotel room.

Speak of the devil! But he’s going the other way, so I will just have to wait for mine to come. And, while I’m waiting, I can practice my flamboyant arm-waving-while-boarding!

I’m getting better, that’s for dang sure.

Once on the bus, it was butterflies all over again. I was so tickled to have a whole two days in one of my favorite cities! Even though I didn’t pay for the New York City Pass this time around (I did last September), I still managed to really enjoy my time in Manhattan.

I was saving money for Disneyland the next week, remember?

Eek, more butterflies!

I had a great first view of the city through the bus window. Unfortunately, it didn’t really translate into a great view in this picture!

Use your imagination, OK?

And we are here again! I got to talk about the gospel on the bus ride in, though I think that she was more interested in trying to convince me that I was wrong than listening to what I had to offer to our conversation.

Here I am facing east on 8th Avenue and 41st Street. Welcome to New York!

I love love love the older buildings with the water tanks on top. And I particularly love this one because of the old painted advertising on it. Sea Air Tours? How cool is that?!

NYC is such a wonderful mix of old and new.

And, of course, right across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal is the headquarters for The New York Times.

Just like every newspaper in these moderns days, these guys are really struggling to make it in a digital world.

Someday, when I have a ton of time in this wonderful city, I will spend an entire day exploring the Intrepid. I just want to give it the attention that it deserves and not feel rushed to get on to other things.

Someday, Intrepid. Just you wait!

The museum originally opened in 1982 after being saved from scrapping by a local philanthropist. I’m glad that he saved it, personally. Just a few years ago, from 2006-2008, the Intrepid was tug-boated to New Jersey, then Staten Island for major renovations.

This also made room on the top deck for the Concorde, which had been on a shipping barge previously.

The USS Intrepid itself was quite a ship in the day! It was commissioned in 1943 and served in the Pacific during World War II. It was renovated a few times and was even brought back into service to aid during the Vietnam War twenty years later.

Apparently, it was also a maintenance hog, earning the nickname “The Dry 1” because it spent so much time in dry dock for repairs.

The Intrepid was also used as a recovery vessel for the Mercury and Gemini space programs. How cool is it that a shuttle now sits on these decks? That only happened a year ago when the Enterprise flew to JFK and was then tug-boated to the Intrepid.